System and method for providing products from multiple websites

ABSTRACT

A system and method that combines content with one or more canvas products to provide finished products for dissemination to end customers is provided. More specifically, a system and method are provided to enable a content provider to select one or more canvas products to which content would be applied, whereby the content provider may then provide web links on any of a multitude of locations to redirect an end customer to a canvas product center and/or fulfillment center to acquire finished products having content thereon. The finished product is customizable for and by any one or more content providers for a unique appearance and offering to end customers. Content providers are able to leverage the infrastructure, network and benefits of a third party while enjoying the ease of setup, minimal up-front costs and eliminate the need to invest in or carry an inventory of finished products.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/346,977, filed Jan. 10, 2012, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,111,306, whichclaims the benefit of U.S. Patent Application No. 61/431,083, filed Jan.10, 2011, which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a system and method that combinesartwork content with one or more products having a content receivingregion (i.e., a canvas product) to provide finished products that may beadvertised and purchased from any website and then disseminated to endcustomers. A system and method are provided for identifying at least onecanvas product from a first entity to which content from a second entitymay be applied, to provide finished products. The finished products maybe ordered by customers and fulfilled by the first entity or a thirdentity. The finished product is customizable for and by any one or morecontent providers for a unique appearance and offering to end customers.The finished products are offered by a content provider via links thatmay be placed on any one or more websites, social network pages or othermedium that are independent of a fulfillment center, canvas productcenter or the content provider. The links connect end customers to thecanvas product center and/or fulfillment center where orders may beplaced, payment made and products shipped, all without any interactionby the content provider. Content providers are able to leverage theinfrastructure, network and benefits of a third party fulfillment centerwhile enjoying the ease of setup, minimal up-front costs and eliminatingthe need to invest in or carry an inventory of finished products whilereceiving payments for fulfilled finished products.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The ability and need to distinguish and expand products and serviceofferings continue to be a driving force of today's economy. Solutionsto provide add-ons, additional revenue streams, marketing, and inventorymanagement are a constant challenge to various companies. Businessescontinue to look for ways to improve their margins through minimizedcosts without adversely affecting their sales or product offerings.Intrinsic to these environments is how to better utilize existingmediums or products and leverage technologies or other services tofacilitate such solutions. For example, a photographer, company orindividual that may be responsible for developing or creating content orother artwork may need to expand revenue by looking beyond just sellingphotographs of the artwork. Such an entity might look to offer suchcontent or artwork on some specific product lines such as books,brochures, key chains, mugs, t-shirts, calendars and the like.

In these instances, the content owner may be limited in a number ofways. In the first place, the content owner would have to set up or atleast engage in a new business venture that will handle ordering theproducts on which the artwork would be displayed, imprinting orotherwise incorporating the artwork on the products, maintaining aninventory of finished and unfinished products, processing sales orders,and distributing the finished products to end customers.

Currently, such distribution of products is accomplished using theInternet. In the described scenario, the content provider would need awebsite that is set up for order taking and processing, as well as aback office system or model for providing shipping and/or productdelivery. Such an endeavor can be both costly and time consuming for thecontent provider, thereby diminishing the likelihood of engaging in suchan endeavor. More importantly, such an endeavor may distract the contentprovider from its core business or interests.

To address this need and overcome some of the shortcomings describedearlier, some systems have been implemented in the marketplace to allowa content provider to partner with a product company. One such system isprovided by Zazzle.com Inc. of Redwood City, Calif. (www.zazzle.com). Insuch an arrangement, the content provider provides the product companywith artwork content to enable customers to order content emblazonedproducts. However, such an arrangement limits the exposure for thecontent provider because the artwork content is only being displayed andmarketed through a single product outlet. The content provider islimited to the single site of the product company or those of theproduct company affiliates.

Another system may allow the content provider to provide a link on aproduct company's website to enable customers to order contentemblazoned products. However, such a system may be limited in the sensethat the product company may not have the capability or desire to beengaged in the processing of payments or fulfillment of orders on aretail basis on behalf of the content provider. The foregoing problemmay be addressed by allowing a third party processor company to processor fulfill orders for finished products, when a link is provided on thatthird party processor's website. The problem with this option is thatthe content provider is still limited to a single outlet for hisfinished products. In other words, these solutions still present somemajor disadvantages and suffer from a number of limitations.Importantly, the content provider is limited in the placement of itslinks to just the website of the product company and/or website of thethird party processor, which results in limited exposure for the contentprovider. Furthermore, content providers may be faced with therequirement of meeting certain minimum order quantities from the productmanufacturer, or worse yet, be required to maintain a product inventory.Even further, the use of a third party for processing/fulfilling orderscreates another middle man that has to be compensated and is potentiallya bottle neck in product flow, or is at least another entity with whomthe content provider must interact.

There exists a need to eliminate the requirement that the contentprovider maintain an inventory. Even further, there exists a need toprovide the content provider with a solution that will facilitate thebroadest possible exposure for the finished product through placement oflinks on a plurality of disparate or similar websites. Further still,there exists a need to minimize the bookkeeping and order tracking thatwould be involved for the content provider.

What is needed in one aspect is an enhanced product linking capabilitythat will enable a content provider to offer products that incorporateits content on any chosen website. In another aspect, a system andmethod that provides orderings and fulfillment for multiple products toa multitude of sites is needed. There is currently no efficienttechnique for individualized content provider products to be advertisedand purchased from a multitude of websites, social networks or othersimilar forums.

Accordingly, there is a need for an efficient, scalable, user friendlyand robust technique to provide product links that can be placed onmultiple sites, wherein the product links direct a customer to a canvasproduct center/fulfillment center to obtain customized products that mayhave a variety of content from content providers. The present inventionfills these needs as well as other needs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a system and method that combinesartwork content with one or more canvas products to provide finishedproducts that may be disseminated to end customers. The presentinvention provides a product link to a third party fulfillment providerthat can be utilized by an end customer to order a finished producthaving incorporated therein, images or other content provided by acontent provider. The invention provides at least one canvas product asa medium for images or other content from the content provider. Theimages or content may then be incorporated into the canvas product toproduce a finished product, a preview of which is provided as a productUniversal Resource Locator (URL) link, which may be located on anywebpage or forum page. Customers are able to place orders for thefinished product by selecting the link. Selection of the link navigatesthe customer to the third party fulfillment provider site where paymentis processed, the customer order is processed and shipped, and thecontent provider is compensated.

For instance, one aspect of the invention is directed to a method forproviding a finished product from a fulfillment provider to an endcustomer, the finished product having incorporated therein, an image orother content provided by a content provider. The method comprises:providing to the content provider at least one canvas product forselection by the content provider, the canvas product providing a mediumfor presenting the images or content; receiving specifications for theplacement of the image or content from the content provider; providingan advertisement image of the finished product as a product UniversalResource Locator (URL) link, wherein the product URL link may be locatedby the content provider on a web page or other similar display forum forselection by the end customer to generate a request for the finishedproduct; navigating the end customer upon selection of said URL to a website of the fulfillment provider, wherein payment is received by thefulfillment provider to fulfill the request for the finished product;and incorporating the image or other content with the canvas product toprovide the finished product to the end customer.

Another aspect of the invention is directed to a method for providing acontent provider with fulfillment to end customers of a printed productthat incorporates the content provider's artwork or image, wherein theend customers may order the printed product from a plurality ofunrelated websites that are independent of a third party fulfillmentprovider. The method comprises: providing at least one product ontowhich the content provider's artwork or image will be placed to resultin the printed product; receiving the artwork or image for transfer ontothe at least one product; and providing a preview of the printed productas a product URL link. The product URL link may be placed on any one ormore of the plurality of unrelated websites for selection by an endcustomer. The selection of the URL link by the end customer directs theend customer to a webpage of the third party fulfillment provider,wherein an order and payment for the printed product is completed.

In yet another aspect of the invention, a method for enabling a contentprovider to offer finished products from any website of choice isprovided. The method comprises: placing an order with a fulfillmentprovider and identifying at least one canvas product; providing contentto the fulfillment provider to be incorporated on the at least onecanvas product to provide a finished product; and receiving from thefulfillment provider a product URL link for placement on any website ofchoice. The end customers may employ the product URL link to access thefulfillment provider to purchase the finished product, wherein theproduct URL link provides identification of the finished product.

In a further aspect of the invention, a method for enabling the offeringof a product URL link to a group of customers is provided. The methodcomprises: providing a product URL link for a group of potentialcustomers whereby each one can indicate an interest or initiate apurchase in one or more finished products; aggregating the interest orpurchase; and initiating a fulfillment order.

In another aspect of the invention, a method for limiting access to aproduct URL link is provided. The method comprises: providing a criteriaoption to a content provider, the fulfillment of which would effectivelydisable the product URL link and prevent further orders of one or moreproducts. The content provider may limit the quantity of items that aresold or specify a time limited offer in an automated manner and withouthaving to personally monitor quantities or track an offer period.

In yet another aspect, a method for providing a prepaid product URL linkfrom a first customer to one or more other customer is provided. Themethod comprises: providing an option to a first customer when making apurchase to have an order fulfilled or provide a product URL link foruse by a second customer, wherein the second customer utilizing saidproduct URL link may place the order and have the order fulfilledwithout a need for the second customer to make payment. The firstcustomer is essentially able to make a gift of one or more finishedproducts via the system of the present invention, while still allowingthe second customer to make appropriate selections and specifyfulfillment criteria for the one or more finished products.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above-mentioned and other features and advantages of this invention,and the manner of attaining them, will become apparent and be betterunderstood by reference to the following description of the invention inconjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 generally illustrates a networking environment in which thepresent invention may be implemented;

FIG. 2 is an illustration of an exemplary product, content and finishedproduct according to the present invention;

FIG. 3A is a representative block diagram of the components of anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3B is a flow chart generally illustrating a procedure for enablinga canvas product center to identify products and content for specifyinga product link;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart generally illustrating steps that may beperformed by a fulfillment provider to process a customer orderaccording to the present invention; and

FIG. 5 is a block diagram generally illustrating a computing environmentin which the invention may be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Generally, the tools and methods described herein for creating andimplementing product linking for providing customized finished productsthat may be implemented, processed and fulfilled by parties other thanthe content provider may be implemented in hardware, software or acombination thereof.

This document is organized as follows: In the first section, an overviewof the techniques and implementation is provided and described alongwith an exemplary network environment; In the next section, an exemplaryfinished product as produced by the present invention is discussed.Following this, the specifics of the work flow and implementation forthe product link and ordering process is discussed, including theoperational functions of the present invention. Finally, an exemplarycomputer environment for the implementation of the invention isdescribed.

Overview of Techniques and Implementations

The present invention provides a system and method that combinescontent, such as works of art, images, photographs, text, music, video,or any digital content, with one or more products having a contentreceiving region (hereinafter “canvas product” or “canvas products”) toprovide finished products that may be purchased and disseminated to endcustomers via a product link. It should be understood that the canvasproduct may include, but is not limited to a photo print, mug, clothing,key chain, memorabilia, brochure, calendar, catalog, book, blanket, andowner's manual.

In particular, a system and method are provided for identifying at leastone canvas product from a product provider. Content from a contentprovider may be applied to the canvas product (or canvas product line),resulting in a finished product (or finished product line) that isassociated and identified by a unique product Universal Resource Locator(URL) link. The product URL link may be advertised or located on any oneor more website pages, or other forums, to enable regional, domestic andinternational retail or wholesale merchandising of the finished product.An interested customer may then order finished products by utilizing theproduct URL link. The product URL link connects the customer with afulfillment processor/provider. The fulfillment provider processespayment information and fulfills the order. In other words, contentproviders are able to provide, market and sell a variety of finishedproducts with no need to stock products by using an easy setup systemthat has no upfront costs.

The present invention introduces a number of concepts and a uniqueparadigm for the marketing and sale of a product. Certain key terms needto be addressed and understood in order to appreciate the invention. Thepresent invention is described with reference to equipment, roles andprocesses that relate to images and more specifically, the applicationof images to products. However, as would be appreciated by one skilledin the art, the invention may be applicable to other processes andimplementations, the references and discussion provided herein arestrictly for illustrative purposes and are not intended to limit thescope of the invention.

A canvas product center originates product lines and provides theintegration or configuration of product lines and content that issupplied for application thereto. A canvas product is a product orproduct line having a content receiving region that provides an area forthe incorporation of content therein. A product/product line may includesuch items as a photo print, mug, clothing, such as a T-shirt, keychain, memorabilia, brochure, calendar, catalog, book, blanket, owner'smanual or other medium that will present, display or otherwisecommunicate content. The integration of a product line with contentresults in finished products. Finished products as used herein,comprises a selected canvas product line that has been combined withcontent supplied by the content provider. The canvas product center mayinteract directly or indirectly with customers to take orders, whereincommunication is initiated between the customer and fulfillment centervia the product URL link.

A content provider, such as, for example, a photographer or artist,authors content including artwork, images, text, music, video, digitalcontent, or other such expressions. The content provider selects aparticular product line/canvas products and may identify content thatshould be displayed thereon. Along with the product configuration, aunique index or identifier for the requested product and content isprovided to the content provider in the form of the product URL link.

A customer is the originator of an order for finished products. Using aweb browser, the customer initiates a request for a finished product.

A fulfillment center or order processor can be defined as the entitythat provides the end product to the customer by direct shipment to thecustomer, or by shipment to a store location so that the customer canpick-up the finished products.

Having described some base concepts of the invention, aspects of theinvention will now be described with reference to the drawing figures.An exemplary environment or system in which the present invention wouldbe applicable is shown in FIG. 1 and is designated as reference numeral100.

The environment 100 may include a network 102, such as a Local AreaNetwork (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), Internet, Wireless network orother similar configuration for allowing communication among two or morecomputing devices. Connected to network 102 may be one or more generalpurpose computing devices 104, 110. Computing devices 104,110 mayinclude devices such as handheld devices, laptop computers or personalcomputers, which may be located in a home, office, retail location orother environment, and that provide an interface for user interactionwith local or remote applications or systems. Computing devices 104, 110may also be a wireless device such as a cellular phone or personaldigital assistant.

A server 106 may also be connected to network 102 to provide any one ormore of a variety of functions including serving as a web server, datastore, and application server and/or provide other services. A productselection device 108, which may be associated with computing device 110,may also be connected to network 102.

A fulfillment center 112 may also be remotely located and connected tonetwork 102. The fulfillment center 112 may have its own local areanetwork 114 and a local server 116 in addition to other devices forfulfilling customer orders. The server 116 may provide local services inaddition to providing communication and data exchange with networkserver 106. A canvas product center 113 having a server 126 may also beconnected to the network 102. The canvas product center 113 may includeequipment for producing finished products in addition to the ordertaking system for servicing the content provider and the system forcommunicating with customers via the product URL link. In addition totypical devices found in an office environment, fulfillment center 112or canvas product center 113 may include a large photo format printer118, ink jet printers 120, gift card equipment 124, 130, contenttransfer equipment 122, 128 or other devices for transferring orincorporating digital images onto a variety of mediums by, for example,printing, etching, embroidering, and embroidering.

Generally, the present invention relates to providing the unique productURL link to a content provider user of the computing devices 110. Theproduct URL link enables the content provider user to attach a uniqueand distinctive look or feature, branding information, coupons, specialmessages, marketing content or finished product preview onto any websiteof choice, whereby a customer using computing device 104 may place anorder for finished products. A content provider provides to the canvasproduct center 113 data files of content along with a specification ofthe location and size of such content, an identification of one or morecanvas product lines onto which the content would be placed usingproduct selection system 108, along with the unit price for eachfinished product. A customer utilizing the computing device 104 canplace an order for a finished product. In an embodiment of the presentinvention, the order is placed by clicking on the product URL link,which established communication with canvas product center 113. Thecanvas product center 113, in conjunction with fulfillment center 112,processes and delivers finished products comprising the selected canvasproduct and provider specified content, in sizes and locations on thecanvas product designated by the content provider. The content providerspecification may be accomplished with an order manifest. The ordermanifest file in an embodiment of the present invention may be aneXtensible Markup Language (XML) file that contains all the informationthat will be utilized to render or otherwise produce the finishedproduct and identify same.

In order to provide the finished product to the customer, one or moresoftware programs, such as an ordering manifest system, allows a contentprovider to specify among other things for example, the size of an imageto be applied to the canvas product, the number of images in the order,any logo, the content provider's contact information, banking or otherpayment specifics, any other relevant information along with informationon where items should be located on the canvas product, and any businessrules for the fulfillment center. The present invention provides meansfor content providers to provide this information and for canvas productcenter or fulfillment center to maintain and implement the information.More specifically, the present invention provides a methodology for acollaborative yet distinctive and individualized design and delivery ofa finished product.

In one aspect, the present invention enables the offering of a productURL link to a group of customers, namely, a group product URL link.Similar to the product URL link that is created for use by an individualcustomer, a URL is created to enable a group of potential customers toindividually and separately indicate an interest in or initiate apurchase for one or more finished products, including the ability to payfor such products but without the fulfillment aspect being implemented.In other words, in a situation where a single group order of multiplecustomer orders may be required, such as if a first customer is takingorders for new calendars from multiple other customers and the firstcustomer wishes to place a single large order with the content provideror fulfillment center. The present invention aggregates the interest orpurchases, including tallying up the total for the group order, and thenenables the first customer to initiating a fulfillment order for theentire group.

In another aspect of the present invention, a method for limiting accessto a product URL link is provided. It is desirable in some instancesthat a content provider provide some parameters or limitations on theorders that can be placed by customers. For example, an artist may wantto limit the number of copies of a particular artwork that would besold. Similarly, a content provider may want to only offer a particularfinished product for a limited period of time. The present inventionprovides a criteria option to a content provider whereby the contentprovider can specify a type of limitation on the orders including, butnot limited to, quantities or offer period. Utilizing the criteriaoption as a trigger, the present invention effectively disables theproduct URL link and prevents further orders of products. A contentprovider is thus able to control the product URL link in a detached anautomated manner, and without having to personally monitor quantities,track an offer period or other limiting criteria.

In yet another aspect, the present invention provides a prepaid productURL link that can be sent from a first customer to one or more othercustomer such as in the case of a gift. An option is provided to a firstcustomer when making a purchase, to have an order fulfilled or to have aproduct URL link created that can be communicated to and used by asecond customer. The second customer is able to utilize the product URLlink to place an order and have the order fulfilled without the need tomake a payment. Utilizing this aspect of the invention, the firstcustomer may make a gift of one or more finished products, while stillallowing the second customer to make appropriate selections and specifyfulfillment criteria for the one or more finished products.

Representative Implementation

The present invention and the advantages thereof can be furtherappreciated by considering a representative implementation. In therepresentative implementation, the creation of a finished product mughaving tropical pictures emblazoned thereon is described in accordancewith the present invention and with initial reference to FIG. 2. FIG. 2provides an exemplary finished product 200. For the purpose ofillustration, the finished product 200 described hereafter as a coffeemug, on which the photographic images specified by a content providerwill be printed. As shown, the coffee mug 200 comprises an outercylindrical surface region 202, onto which an image 204 is imprinted.Image 204 may be uniquely and independently sized to enable the surfaceregion 202 to accommodate one or more varieties of images. Initially, ablank coffee mug (canvas) along with other products such as t-shirts,buttons, or posters may be presented by canvas product center 113 aschoices to a content provider. The content provider working inconjunction with canvas product center 113 may then select the coffeemug 200 and provide specific order manifest information for any contentthat the content provider wishes to imprint on to the coffee mug 200.The content provider may also specify a price for the finished productcoffee mug 200, which is the content provider's unique product.

As previously noted, the content provider is responsible for creatingand providing all translated content and any static and/or dynamic itemsthat will be placed on the product line. The example of the coffee mug200 further illustrates this feature. In another example, a contentprovider such as an appliance manufacturer may provide a brochure orbook such as an appliance owner's manual as the content. As in the caseof the mug, a product URL link will be created and associated with thefinished product (i.e., the owner's manual). In this case, the appliancemanufacturer may provide the product URL link on its website or merelyspecify the product URL link in other documentation provided to theappliance purchaser. In either scenario, the product URL link directsthe appliance owner to the website for canvas product center 113 where acopy of the owner's manual may be ordered and shipped to the appliancepurchaser by fulfillment center 112. In another aspect of the presentinvention, fulfillment center 112 may track the number of copies shippedalong with a running total of costs, such that the appliancemanufacturer could be set up as a bulk paying client of fulfillmentcenter 112 that may have prepaid for a fixed number of manuals, or as aclient that receives increasing percentages of revenue from purchasedmanuals.

Having described the finished product, attention is next directed to awork flow that is implemented to arrive at the finished mug product 200.A discussion of the work flow will further highlight some of the otherfeatures of the invention.

The work flow is best described with reference to FIG. 3A. The systemand method of the present invention is best conceptualized byconsidering a workflow 300 comprising four components 112, 113, 302, 304and the interactions therebetween in conjunction with one or morewebsites 306, 308 accessible via network 102. It should be understoodthat websites 306, 308 are shown for illustrative purposes, and that thepresent invention may be used with one website or more than twowebsites. The first component is a content provider 302, the second iscanvas product center 113, the third is fulfillment center 112, and thefourth is a customer 304. Any one of these components may be acombination of software and/or hardware and the functions performedwithin any one component are not strictly limited to such component orentity. To the contrary, functions may be dispersed among the components112, 113, 302, 304 or consolidated therewithin. For example and asshown, canvas product center 113 and fulfillment center 112 may be acombined entity known as a fulfillment provider 310.

In an embodiment of the present invention, content provider 302initiates the workflow process by making contact with canvas productcenter 113 to submit an order for combining the content with a productline offered by the canvas product center 113. The canvas product center113 presents a list of product lines, at step 312 as shown in FIG. 3B.The product lines may be manufactured by the canvas product center 113or merely distributed or resold by the canvas product center 113. Thecanvas product center 113 receives an order manifest including a productchoice, a pricing structure and content from content provider 302, atstep 314. The canvas product center 113 performs any required validationof provided parameters and the content provider's order. At step 316,images specified within the order manifest, in this case the product URLlink for the images or content, that will be placed on the finishedcoffee mug product 200 are acquired. The images may be located on thecanvas provider's server system or any other source. Following this,also at step 316, the content provider's order is processed and apreview of the finished product is generated. Product and contentspecifications or other finished product data may be provided tofulfillment center 112, as necessary. In conjunction with the generationof the finished product preview, the product URL link is formulated andrelated to the finished product of the order, at step 318. A record forthe fulfillment process or fulfillment provider may then be created toallow future reference and identification of the particular finishedproduct when a fulfillment web server is accessed utilizing the productURL link.

The product URL link is returned or otherwise made known to the contentprovider 302 at the time of the order placement. The product URL linkmay then be located or placed on one or more websites 306, 308,including, but not limited to, social network pages or other forumswhere content provider 302 wishes to advertise or otherwise solicitfinished product sales. In other words, content provider 302 is notlimited in any way as to the number and type of sites or pages wherehe/she place the product URL link. Any potential customer that has aninterest in the advertised product may then select the product URL linkto place an order for a finished product.

Selection of the product URL link causes a customer's screen or browserto be redirected to the web server of canvas product center 113. Thecanvas product center 113 and/or fulfillment center 112 is then able toretrieve the finished product information.

Exemplary steps for the purchase of the finished product are bestdescribed with reference to FIG. 4. As shown in FIG. 4, the customer 304is presented with photographs or other displays of the finished product,at step 402, and is given the option to select formatting for theproduct, for examples, border placement, etc. In addition, the customeris also presented with pricing information, payment options and shippingoptions. As previously described, the finished product specification maybe in the form of a manifest order which may then be parsed andinterpreted to fulfill the order. Based on the selection of the customer304, the quantities ordered, and other fulfillment information supplied,payment is then processed at step 404 along with the selected productformatting. The finished product is then shipped to either customer 304or a location specified by the customer 304, at step 406. In oneembodiment of the present invention, the completion of the fulfillmentalso triggers a payment to content provider 302, of a predeterminedportion of the payment received from customer 304. Alternatively,payment to content provider 302, may also occur immediately followingthe receipt of payment by canvas product center 113 rather than beingdelayed until the order is fulfilled.

The system and method of the present invention, preferably provides aconvention/set of rules for the structure, content and use of tags in anorder manifest XML file, thereby providing an interrelationship amongthe several data items contained therein, such as the selected productline, the content, placement of the content on the product, salesmargins, or pricing for the finished product. These and other provisionsenable the design and implementation of an easily maintained system forthe content provider. Even further, these provisions make the systemflexible, scalable, and robust, while minimizing content provider effortand startup costs.

Having described the system and method of the present invention and anembodiment thereof, an exemplary computer environment for implementingthe described design and execution is presented next.

FIG. 5 shows an exemplary computing environment 500 that can be used toimplement any of the processing thus far described. Computingenvironment 500 may include one or more computers 512 (such as, forexample, computing devices 104, 110) comprising a system bus 524 thatcouples a video interface 526, network interface 528, a keyboard/mouseinterface 534, and a system memory 536 to a Central Processing Unit(CPU) 538. A monitor or display 540 is connected to bus 524 by videointerface 526 and provides the user with a graphical user interface toview, edit, and prepare an order, such as, for example, using digitallyrepresented still images. The graphical user interface allows the userto enter commands and information into computer 512 using a keyboard 541and a user interface selection device 543, such as a mouse or otherpointing device. Keyboard 541 and user interface selection device areconnected to bus 524 through keyboard/mouse interface 534. The display540 and user interface selection device 543 are used in combination toform the graphical user interface which allows the user to implement atleast a portion of the present invention. Other peripheral devices maybe connected to the remote computer through universal serial bus (USB)drives 545 to transfer information to and from computer 512. Forexample, cameras and camcorders may be connected to computer 512 throughserial port 532 or USB drives 545 so that data representative of adigitally represented still image, text, music, video, or other digitalcontent may be downloaded to system memory 536 or another memory storagedevice associated with computer 512 such that the images may besubsequently printed by one or more canvas product center 113 and/orfulfillment centers 112 in accordance with the present invention.

The system memory 536 is also connected to bus 524 and may include readonly memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), an operating system 544,a basic input/output system (BIOS) 546, application programs 548 andprogram data 550. The computer 512 may further include a hard disk drive552 for reading from and writing to a hard disk, a magnetic disk drive554 for reading from and writing to a removable magnetic disk (e.g.,floppy disk), and an optical disk drive 556 for reading from and writingto a removable optical disk (e.g., CD ROM or other optical media). Thecomputer 512 may also include USB drives 545 and other types of drivesfor reading from and writing to flash memory devices (e.g., compactflash, memory stick/PRO and DUO, SD card, multimedia card, smart mediaxD card), and a scanner 558 for scanning items such as still imagephotographs to be downloaded to computer 512. A hard disk driveinterface 552 a, magnetic disk drive interface 554 a, an optical driveinterface 556 a, a USB drive interface 545 a, and a scanner interface558 a operate to connect bus 524 to hard disk drive 552, magnetic diskdrive 554, optical disk drive 556, USB drive 545 and scanner 558,respectively. Each of these drive components and their associatedcomputer-readable media may provide remote computer 512 withnon-volatile storage of computer-readable instruction, program modules,data structures, application programs, an operating system, and otherdata for computer 512. In addition, it will be understood that computer512 may also utilize other types of computer-readable media in additionto those types set forth herein, such as digital video disks, randomaccess memory, read only memory, other types of flash memory cards,magnetic cassettes, and the like.

Computer 512 may operate in a networked environment using logicalconnections with fulfillment center 112 and/or canvas product center113. Network interface 528 provides a communication path 560 between bus524 and network 102, which allows, for example, an order from a customerto be communicated through network 102 to fulfillment centers 112, orfor a product selection to be communicated to canvas product center 113from content provider 302. The order or product selection, for example,may also be communicated from bus 524 through a communication path 562to network 102 using serial port 532 and a modem 564. Using a modemconnection between the computer 512 and canvas product center 113 and/orfulfillment center 112 is commonly used in conjunction with a wide areanetwork (WAN). It will be appreciated that the network connections shownherein are merely exemplary, and it is within the scope of the presentinvention to use other types of network connections between remotecomputer 512, canvas product center 113, and fulfillment centers 112including both wired and wireless connections.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that this invention is one welladapted to attain all the ends and objects hereinabove set forthtogether with other advantages which are obvious and which are inherentto the method and apparatus. It will be understood that certain featuresand sub combinations are of utility and may be employed withoutreference to other features and sub combinations. This is contemplatedby and is within the scope of the claims. Since many possibleembodiments of the invention may be made without departing from thescope thereof, it is also to be understood that all matters herein setforth or shown in the accompanying drawings are to be interpreted asillustrative and not limiting.

The constructions described above and illustrated in the drawings arepresented by way of example only and are not intended to limit theconcepts and principles of the present invention. As used herein, theterms “having” and/or “including” and other terms of inclusion are termsindicative of inclusion rather than requirements.

While the invention has been described with reference to preferredembodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art thatvarious changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted forelements thereof to adapt to particular situations without departingfrom the scope of the invention. Therefore, it is intended that theinvention not be limited to the particular embodiments disclosed as thebest mode contemplated for carrying out this invention, but that theinvention will include all embodiments falling within the scope andspirit of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for providing a finished product from a fulfillment provider to an end customer, the finished product having incorporated therein, content identified and provided by a content provider, said fulfillment provider including a processor programmed for executing the method comprising: providing to said content provider a list including at least one canvas product for selection by said content provider, said canvas product providing a medium for presenting said content; receiving from said content provider an order manifest file including a location of said content identified by said content provider and an identification of said selected canvas product; obtaining said identified content; providing to said content provider a product Universal Resource Locator (URL) link, wherein said product URL link is configured for being located by said content provider on a third party website for selection by said end customer to generate a request for the finished product; navigating said end customer upon selection of said product URL to a website of said fulfillment provider, wherein payment is received by said fulfillment provider to fulfill said request for said finished product; and incorporating said content with said canvas product to provide the finished product to said end customer, wherein said third party website and said website of said fulfillment provider are separate websites, and wherein said third party website is not controlled by said fulfillment provider.
 2. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein said other content includes at least one of an image, a work of art, text, music, video, and digital content.
 3. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein said at least one canvas product includes at least one of a photo print, mug, clothing, key chain, memorabilia, brochure, calendar, catalog, book, blanket, and owner's manual.
 4. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein other informational items are received by the fulfillment provider so that said request for the finished product may be fulfilled, wherein said other informational items includes a product format selected by said end customer.
 5. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein said third party web page, said end customer, and said fulfillment provider are connected to a network.
 6. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein said product URL link is a group product URL link that is available to multiple customers, said multiple customers defining a group, wherein at least one of said multiple customers of said group initiate a request for the finished product from the fulfillment provider; and wherein said request that is provided to the fulfillment provider is collated and tallied for said group in accordance with a grouping criteria, said grouping criteria further enabling a single fulfillment of all of the orders from said multiple customers.
 7. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising the step of associating a link disabling criteria with said product URL link, wherein said link disabling criteria is provided by said content provider to disable said product URL link upon the occurrence of said link disabling criteria.
 8. A method in accordance with claim 7, wherein said link disabling criteria is a predetermined number of total orders for the finished product.
 9. A method in accordance with claim 7, wherein said link disabling criteria is a predetermined time period during which the finished product may be ordered by said end customer.
 10. A method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising sending a notification to a second customer including said product URL link, wherein said second customer can request the fulfillment of the finished product that was paid for by said end customer.
 11. A computer-implemented method for providing a content provider with fulfillment to an end customer of a printed product that incorporates content from the content provider, a fulfillment provider including a processor programmed for executing the method comprising: providing at least one product onto which said content providers content will be placed to result in said printed product; receiving said content provider's content for transfer onto said at least one product; and providing a product URL link for selection by said end customer, wherein said selection of said product URL link by said end customer directs said end customer to a website of said fulfillment provider, wherein an order and payment for said printed product is completed; and wherein providing said product URL link for selection by said end consumer includes placing said URL link on one or more third party websites, wherein said one or more third party websites and said website of the fulfillment provider are separate websites, and wherein said one or more third party websites are not controlled by said fulfillment provider.
 12. A method in accordance with claim 11, wherein said at least one product includes at least one of photo print, mug, clothing, key chain, memorabilia, brochure, calendar, catalog, book, blanket, and owner's manual.
 13. A method in accordance with claim 11, further comprising receiving specifications for said placement of said content provider's content from said content provider.
 14. A method in accordance with claim 11, wherein said order received by said fulfillment provider includes a product format selected by said end customer.
 15. A method in accordance with claim 11, wherein said end customers and said fulfillment provider are connected to a network.
 16. A computer-implemented method for enabling a content provider to offer finished products from a third party website, the content provider including a processor programmed for executing the method comprising: receiving from a fulfillment provider a list including at least one canvas product for selection by said content provider, said canvas product providing a medium for presenting content identified by said content provider; selecting one of said at least one canvas product from said list; providing to said fulfillment provider an order manifest file including a location of said content identified by said content provider and an identification of said selected one of said at least one canvas product; providing said content to said fulfillment provider to be incorporated on said selected one of said at least one canvas product to provide a finished product; and receiving from said fulfillment provider a product URL link for placement on a third party website, wherein end customers use said product URL link to access a website of said fulfillment provider to purchase said finished product, wherein said product URL link provides identification of said finished product, wherein said third party website and said website of said fulfillment provider are separate websites, and wherein said third party website is not controlled by said fulfillment provider.
 17. A method in accordance with claim 16, wherein said content includes at least one of an image, a work of art, text, music, video, and digital content.
 18. A method in accordance with claim 16, wherein said at least one canvas product includes at least one of a photo print, mug, clothing, key chain, memorabilia, brochure, calendar, catalog, book, blanket, and owner's manual.
 19. A method in accordance with claim 16, wherein the content provider and said fulfillment provider are connected to a network. 